I spent 15 minutes steeling myself for what was about to do. As I soon as I could see the hall, I looked around for any sign of danger. Since I only saw the bodies of the dead, I carefully made my way into the hallway. With every step I splashed through a puddle of gore.

Hardly able to keep down the need to wretch, I did my best to sneak to the cafeteria. As I was walking I saw neither hide nor hair of a living person. All I saw was the dead, and evidence of multiple unknown creatures. “I can’t be the only person left.” I whisper . But from the amount of bodies I was passing there was a good chance that was the case.

As I kept walking the sounds of carnage slowly faded away, leaving me to a strange stillness. Halfway to the cafeteria , as I was creeping towards a corner. I heard tearing and a wet snuffling noise. I slowed my approach to a crawl and peeked around the corner.

I saw a creature that looked like the perverted hybrid of a rat and a rottweiler. It had large red eyes, set deep within its skull and was about 4ft tall from its shoulder. Its body covered in spiky grey fur. Vicious dull gray claws, and a mouth full of twisted and broken teeth that shown in the midday light. It had a foot long twisting horn that grew from its forehead and a 5ft rat tail that was thick with muscle.

The creature was tearing its way through the body of a young woman. She would have been beautiful if she still lived, but all that I saw now were her empty eyes. Even that was soon taken away, as the monster started on her face. I couldn’t help but make a squeak of horror as it broke through her skull. To me that squeak barely louder than a whisper sounded like a gun going off. In an instant the rat thing looked up from it’s meal and locked eyes with me.

For the second time in my adult life I almost shit myself. In the monster's eyes I saw no intelligence. I saw only the promise of a gruesome death. That moment couldn't have been longer than a split second, but to me it felt like an eternity. In that moment frozen in time, two emotions waged war across my mind. Incredible rage for the many lives taken this day and the indescribable terror of an impending doom. The two emotions ravaged my mind in that second. Burning my mind with their repeated clashes.

When the beast finally took a step, the battle was over. My fear had won, beating my hate into a far corner of my mind. By the beast’s second step I was already back around the corner running for my life. Behind me I could the it tearing after me. It’s claws ripping into floorboards and it’s wet snuffling breath getting closer and closer.

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As I heard the breathing getting closer, I could hardly stop myself from going insane. All I could do was make sure not to trip, and pump my legs faster and faster. After 3 minutes of solid sprinting, I was gasping for breath. The rat was just behind me, hardly a foot away from catching me.

As I was running, I saw that I had cornered myself in a dead end. The beast saw that I had nowhere to go and started to running faster. I knew I had little time left, so I looked for any possible way out.  I saw only one option that would almost certainly lead to my death. Since I had nowhere else to turn, I took a gamble on that insane idea.

I started running faster than I would have thought possible in any other situation. As I rapidly approached the wall, I did my best to focus on the breathing of the creature. Trying to place how far behind me it was. As I figuring out the approximate distance of the monster I reached the wall.

As soon as I slammed into the wall, I paused then threw myself into the wall of the dead end. A second after I got out of the way the beast slammed into the wall head first. Horn piercing right where my stomach was. As I watched the monster tried to pull itself out the wall, but found itself stuck. It’s horn was far too deep in the wall for it to go anywhere any time soon.

Seeing that it couldn't get out, the monster started making these weird chirping noises while trying to swipe at me with it's back legs and tail. Luckily I was out of its reach. I didn't really know what to do at that point. I was just surprised that my plan worked and I wasn't dead.

As I watched the monster squirm, the rage I pushed down earlier came roaring back up, and with it the need to get revenge for all that was lost. I did a quick scan around the corridor for a weapon to end the beast life. While I was looking I heard the monster’s horn start to make its way out of the wall. Seeing my chance slipping away I decided to just go for it.

I pushed myself off the wall and kicked the beast in the head. I just kept kicking the creature in the head until it’s horn snapped and it crumpled to the ground. Ignoring the whining sound emanating from the beast, I pried the horn from the wall.

The horn was rough to the touch, and heavier than it would appear. Adjusting to the weight and balance of the horn, I turned to the beast. The spiral shape made it kind of awkward to wield, but it would work. I walked closer to the beast, holding the horn like a dagger.

Standing over it I paused. This would be the first time I ever killed something. Steeling myself, I raised the horn in a reverse grip and stabbed downward towards its side. The hide was thicker than it appeared, but with some effort the skin broke. As the horn pierced its side, the beast woke up from whatever stupor it was in and started thrashing around. I was forced to try and hold the beast down while continually stabbing it. In total it took around 10 thrusts to the stomach and chest to put it down.

With the deed done I let dripping horn fall to the floor as I stumbled into the wall. I sat down and stared at my bloody hands and soaked clothes. Tears dripping down my face, I mourned for what has happened and what I’ll have to do in the future to survive.